Saturday, March 22, 2014

World Water Day 2014: The Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF) is proud to sign on to the Marseille Declaration which calls on global citizens of conscience to take action for Palestinian water rights and to promote global water justice.

colonizing the water commons, Maia Brown

http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/blog/2014/03/22/world-water-day-2014

Posted in Get Involved on March 22, 2014 by Jennifer.

March 22nd, World Water Day (declared by the UN in 1992) is a moment to recommit to fighting for the human right to water and to make visible the growing global crisis of water inequality fueled by water privatization.

On World Water Day 2014, the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF) is proud to sign on to the Marseille Declaration which calls on global citizens of conscience to take action for Palestinian water rights and to promote global water justice. With this action, we partner with those who resist corporate and state profiteering from human rights violations and the corporatizing of our common water heritage. Please join us!

TAKE ACTION!

Read and endorse the Marseille Declaration today!
Join RCF and Stop Veolia Seattle (SVS) this Sunday at the Northwest Film Forum for a series of World Water Day films and discussion on The Human Right to Water: Connecting Local and Global Struggles.
Learn more from our World Water Day contributors Susan Koppelman and Marcela Olivera on boycotting Veolia and about global responses to water privatization.

Palestinian Water Rights: Another Reason to Boycott and Divest from Veolia
The Rising Water in Bolivia and Latin America by Marcela Olivera

My letter to the Washington Post RE Zionist letters "Israel’s position in the Middle East"

Earth from space

RE Washington Post Zionist letters "Israel’s position in the Middle East"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/israels-position-in-the-middle-east/2014/03/21/f11a09b2-af80-11e3-b8b3-44b1d1cd4c1f_story.html

Dear Editor,

If Israel's alleged Jewishness meant the rule of fair laws, real justice, respect, security and true freedom for the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine as well as all Jewish immigrants, there would not be an Israel-Palestine conflict... There would be two sovereign secular states, one named Israel and one named Palestine living side by side in peace shaping two separate but complimentary identities.

Archaeological projects would be more inclusion and revealing, and faith would be a personal private affair, not a state sponsored intrusion into who gets to enjoy their heritage & inheritance and who gets to be persecuted, oppressed, impoverished, disenfranchised and pushed into forced exile. Religious extremism might still be a problem, but more reasonable people would have the tools to be good neighbors building healthy, stable communities, economic polices, and business practices that respect the rights and responsibilities of all people, including all Hebrew and Arabic speaking Semites: Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Your Zionist letter writers obsessing about Israel's Jewishness have a right to their opinion.... and the rest of us have a right to research, recognize institutionalized bigotry, and firmly oppose wasting precious time slogging through religious propaganda and distortions about Palestinians generated by a foreign regime that seeks to coerce American tax payers into subsidizing and empowering Israel's religious scholars and schemes ad infinitum.

For concerned citizens of the world who understand and empower the Universal Declaration of human rights and the idea that " recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world", the Washington Post is obviously not the end all be all of news, opinion and perspectives regarding "Israel’s position in the Middle East."

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

U.N. rights investigator accuses Israel of 'ethnic cleansing'

Palestine Images.... flowering almond

Ashrawi: “There is a Global Rule of Law, and Israel Must be Subject to it”

In response to the concerns raised by Palestinian churches in Palestine and Israel, the World Council of Churches expresses its own grave concern about the law passed by the Israeli Knesset on 24 February 2014, which would define the status of Palestinian Arab Christians in the State of Israel against their own will.

Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian teen south of Hebron: Soldiers shoot dead teen after claiming he was damaging separation wall, victim's brother says he was picking local plants in the area with friends.

Israel approves 184 new settlement homes

"I believe that the root of all injustice and oppression has always been the same – the dehumanization of the other. It is the obsession with Us and Them that can lead us, regardless of racial or religious identity, into the abyss." Roger Waters: Why I must speak out on Israel, Palestine and BDS

Maen Rashid Areikat: Obama is right to criticize Israeli settlements

Celebrities press UN on Palestinian refugees in Syria

Old Man of Jerusalem... with an AP archive link to a wonderful old (& very brief) video made in 1957 of an amazing Palestinian, Mohammad Khalil Abulhawa, born in 1821

Outreach: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all."

#LetUsThrough ... & KUDOS to The Guardian for a dignified glance at what is it really like to be on the frontline of humanitarian response

Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries
The Office of International Religious Freedom
( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ )

"The best and most effective way to reduce the tensions and tragedies such as the murder of the Jordanian judge, is to end the occupation and totally remove the unwanted Israeli occupiers from Palestinian territories." Daoud Kuttab Analysis: Allenby killing highlights need for serious change

Today (15/03/2014): The Israeli civil administration delivered a notice to a Palestinian village in the central West Bank declaring plans to confiscate parts of the village's land

Netanyahu's demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state bizarrely inserts Palestinians into the 'Who is a Jew' debate: Ziad Asali of the American Task Force on Palestine

Ibish: How many times must the Palestinians recognize Israel?

Video of the Late Amb. Sam Lewis, a Friend of both Palestine and Israel

American Task Force on Palestine... A Decade of Achievement: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About ATFP

U.N. Denies Altering Image of Palestinian Refugees in Damascus By the NYTimes' Robert Mackey

Sam Jadallah: Netanyahu's Silicon Valley visit a lost opportunity

Visualizing Palestine: 20 Years of Talks Keeping Palestine Occupied

Arab League, Abbas reject recognizing Israel as 'Jewish state'

Palestine Refugees in Syria: An Andy Warner Comic

A UN Committee Expresses Concern over Recent Developments in Occupied Jerusalem... The committee said that Israel also continues to construct settlements in East Jerusalem, in violation of international law and in defiance of the international community's repeated calls for ending such illegal acts.

Plea to the Pope... Ash Wednesday Letter To Pope Francis: Speak Out Against Targeting of Palestinian Children

Official: Israel refused to let Palestinian refugees in Syria return

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never tires of inventing new hoops through which he insists Palestinians jump. As he acknowledged a few weeks back, it's all part of a cynical game that he plays in an effort to kill the chances for peace....

The Palestinian national soccer team, a source of pride for many, has been under attack by the Israeli state.

Hanan Ashrawi: "Today, 20 years after Baruch Goldstein cut down so many innocent lives in a burst of hateful rage, the poisonous anti-Arab racism that turned him into a mass murderer is alive and well in Israel."

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

Refugees and the Right of Return
We call for a just solution to our refugee issue in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Our position on refugees is also included and supported in the Arab Peace Initiative (API), which calls for “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.” A just solution to the refugee issue must address two aspects: the right of return and reparations.

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

More than sixty years ago, back in 1949, the Application of Israel for admission to membership in the United Nations (A/818) clearly pointed out that Israel was directly contravening "the previous recommendations of the United Nations in at least three important respects: in its attitude on the problem of Arab refugees, on the delimitation of its territorial boundaries, and on the question of Jerusalem." http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/85255e950050831085255e95004fa9c3/1db943e43c280a26052565fa004d8174?OpenDocument

Do Palestinians have a right to return to the places from which they or their ancestors were displaced? UNHCR’s support for the right of return is based on the idea that the right of return is a recognized customary norm of International law which is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It’s important for people to know how far the Palestinians have come to put an end to the conflict with Israel.

The Palestinian Refugee's Right of Return: No issue is more emblematic of the 20th century Palestinian experience than the plight of the approximately seven million Palestinian refugees.

What message do we send?

Reflections By An ARAB JEW by Ella Habiba Shohat "When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the '50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently--the European Jews--were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness. My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew," and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences."

UNITED NATIONS: Give Peace a Chance... The year 2014 has been proclaimed the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People... “The objective of the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people as a central theme, contributing to international awareness of (a) core themes regarding the question of Palestine, as prioritized by the Committee, (b) obstacles to the ongoing peace process, particularly those requiring urgent action such as settlements, Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and; (c) mobilization of global action towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

History of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of the experience of the Second World War. With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of that conflict happen again. World leaders decided to complement the UN Charter with a road map to guarantee the rights of every individual everywhere. The document they considered, and which would later become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was taken up at the first session of the General Assembly in 1946. " http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml

U.N. Resolution 194 from 1948 Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;

The Arab Peace Initiative

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

Do Palestinians have a right to return to the places from which they or their ancestors were displaced?

Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the homes from which they were displaced is well established in International law. The first source of support for Palestinian refugees’ claims to a right of return is UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) Of December 1948, paragraph 11, in which the UN General Assembly,

“Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation…”

Since 1949, this resolution together with UNSC Res. 242 and 338 have been regularly reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly.

The rights outlined in this resolution are firmly grounded in international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Executive Conclusion No. 40, “…the basic rights of persons to return voluntarily to their country of origin is reaffirmed and it is urged that international cooperation be aimed at achieving this solution.”[xi] UNHCR’s support for the right of return is based on the idea that the right of return is a recognized customary norm of International law which is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.[xii]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Live by the Golden Rule

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

U.N. rights investigator accuses Israel of 'ethnic cleansing'... Last June Richard Falk pointed out that critics who called him anti-Semitic sought to divert attention from his scrutiny of Israeli policies.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestine, Richard Falk addresses a news conference at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, told a news conference that Israeli policies bore "unacceptable characteristics of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing".

"Every increment of enlarging the settlements or every incident of house demolition is a way of worsening the situation confronting the Palestinian people and reducing what prospects they might have as the outcome of supposed peace negotiations."

Asked about his accusation of ethnic cleansing, Falk said that more than 11,000 Palestinians had lost their right to live in Jerusalem since 1996 due to Israel imposing residency laws favoring Jews and revoking Palestinian residence permits.

"The 11,000 is just the tip of the iceberg because many more are faced with possible challenges to their residency rights."

This compounded the "ordeal of this extended, prolonged occupation", according to Falk, an international law expert and professor emeritus at Princeton University in the United States.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed the latter, declaring it part of its eternal, indivisible capital, a move never recognized internationally.

Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as their capital. In 2005 Israel quit Gaza, now run by Hamas Islamists opposed to Abbas' peace efforts, but settlement growth continues in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Falk said that Israel had made a systematic effort to "change the ethnic composition" of East Jerusalem by making it more difficult for Palestinians to reside there while encouraging the spread of settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

In a report last month, Falk said Israeli policies in the West Bank appeared to amount to "apartheid and segregation" with a de facto annexation of parts of the territory, denying the Palestinian rright to self-determination.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-rights-investigator-accuses-israel-ethnic-cleansing-172223577.html

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Friday, March 21, 2014

Palestine Images.... flowering almond

2014/1/25 Blooming of flowering almond (Prunus triloba) Almonds are native to central and southwest Asia. Almond tree produces white or pink flowers in mid-spring. Photo By: Bahaa Nasser/WAFA.

Photo Stories

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.wafaimages.ps/e_photo.aspx?id=42402

Palestinian institutions

Local News

Palestinian cities & towns

Activities

Ashrawi: “There is a Global Rule of Law, and Israel Must be Subject to it”

Photo Credit: 2014/3/16 An opening of ” Legacy”exhibition in honor of the International Women’s Day and women’s achievements in Palestinian society. Photo By:Bilal Bana/WAFA.

***

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=24653

RAMALLAH, March 20, 2014 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member, Hanan Ashrawi, stressed that, “With the arbitrary arrests of Palestinians and the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, Israel is in direct violation of international law and the basic norms of human rights. There is a global rule of law, and Israel must be subject to it.”

During a meeting with a European Parliament ad-hoc delegation on Palestinian prisoners, in Ramallah at the PLO Headquarters, Ashrawi said that “All Palestinians are living in a prison.”

Ashrawi said, “We thank the European Parliament for sending this fact-finding mission to investigate the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, particularly the recent deaths of Palestinians in detention. It is our hope that this mission will help uphold prisoners’ rights in ways that are in line with international humanitarian law, and that prevent the further injustice and torture of Palestinian prisoners.”

Both parties discussed Israeli measures pertaining to the Palestinian prisoners’ situation, the abduction and arrest of Palestinian parliamentarians, the urgent need for the application of international and humanitarian law in the imprisonment of Palestinians and for Israel to be held accountable.

In the meeting, Ashrawi welcomed the European Parliament resolution of March 14, 2013 that called “for the immediate release of all imprisoned members of the PLC, including Marwan Barghouti.”

“We call on members of the international community that are signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention to act on the basis of truth and justice and hold Israel accountable for its grave breaches of international law and conventions---It is high time for all states to put an end to Israel’s systematic devaluation of the basic rights and lives of the Palestinian people. For there to be peace, there must be a recognition of parity of rights,” Ashrawi concluded.

T.R.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

In response to the concerns raised by Palestinian churches in Palestine and Israel, the World Council of Churches expresses its own grave concern about the law passed by the Israeli Knesset on 24 February 2014, which would define the status of Palestinian Arab Christians in the State of Israel against their own will.

WCC general secretary expresses concern over Israeli Knesset law

Concern over Israeli law on the status of Arab Christian citizens

19 March 2014

In response to the concerns raised by Palestinian churches in Palestine and Israel, the World Council of Churches expresses its own grave concern about the law passed by the Israeli Knesset on 24 February 2014, which would define the status of Palestinian Arab Christians in the State of Israel against their own will. The bill passed into law expands the “Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity in Employment Commission” from five to 10 members. As expressed in the statement of the heads of the Catholic Church in Israel, the law “introduces a distinction between Christian and Muslim Palestinians and states that Christian Palestinians are Christians and not Palestinians”. Because of recent immigration, not all Christians within the State of Israel are Palestinians. Nevertheless, this law is a matter of great concern to the international ecumenical community for two major reasons:

The law establishes, for the first time, a legislative distinction between the indigenous Palestinian Arab Christians and Palestinian Arab Muslims, both of whom are citizens of the State of Israel. This distinction is an unacceptable severing of entire communities from their cultural identity.
The Knesset has transgressed all proper distinctions between state and religious authority by attempting to define the nature and character of Christian communities within Israel against their own will and self-understanding. Such efforts are most often seen only in totalitarian regimes. This law defiles the sanctity of Christian identity, which is grounded in Christian faith.

The WCC has long affirmed the right of religious communities to define themselves. Religious identity should not be manipulated for political gain. During the recent core group meeting of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), the World Council of Churches heard the voices of Latin Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah and Bishop Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land saying, “No one has the right to tell me who I am!”

Rather than creating divisions among communities, the Knesset should pave the way for breaking down barriers that divide people according to ethnicity and religion. Therefore, I call on Israeli authorities to reverse this law to stop an injustice against Christian citizens of Israel. I recommend that all WCC member churches manifest their solidarity with Christian sisters and brothers, and raise this issue with representatives of Israel and with their own governments, and urge the reversal both of this law and of this spirit in the Knesset.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
WCC general secretary

For a deeper understanding of this issue, please see the statement in English, and Arabic, approved by the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries, which was published by the Justice and Peace Commission. The statement was issued at the bi-annual meeting of the heads of the Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land, held from 11 to 12 March 2014 in Tiberias.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian teen south of Hebron: Soldiers shoot dead teen after claiming he was damaging separation wall, victim's brother says he was picking local plants in the area with friends.

Israeli soldiers on patrol near the West Bank town of Jenin, on
November 13, 2013 (AFP Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

	PLO: 56 Palestinians killed, 897 injured since peace talks began

	Israel 'destroyed' Islamic archaeological sites in Silwan dig

	Jerusalem municipality approves 186 new settlement units
		Analysis: Allenby killing highlights need for serious change

Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian teen south of Hebron

Soldiers shoot dead teen after claiming he was damaging separation wall, victim's brother says he was picking local plants in the area with friends.

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the Hebron district on Wednesday, security and medical sources said.

The sources said the 15-year-old was attempting to cross Israel's separation wall near the southernmost West Bank area of al-Ramadin when Israeli forces shot him dead.

Israeli troops gave him no warning before shooting him, the sources said.

The youth was identified as Yousef Nayif Yousef Shawamrah Abu Akar from the village of Deir al-Asal al-Fauqa south of Hebron.

Israeli forces have yet to deliver his body.

Witnesses said the victim had been foraging for local plants when he was shot, but the army claimed he and two others had been vandalising the security fence.

"Three suspects sabotaged the security fence in Deir al-Asal Atachta, and soldiers at the scene called them to distance themselves and fired warning shots in the air," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

"After all efforts were exhausted the soldiers fired at the main instigators' lower extremities and a hit was identified."

The victim was evacuated to an Israeli hospital, where he died from his wounds.

But the victim's brother, Abed Shawamreh, 23, denied the army's account and said the teenager had been out looking for gundelia, a thistle-type plant used in cooking.

"Every year, people from the village go out to pick gundelia. Today Yussef went with his friends to pick some in an area close to the wall and the army shot at them. They hit him and arrested two of his friends," he told AFP.

AFP contributed to this report

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Israel approves 184 new settlement homes

Related search results

Family member of Palestinian shepherd Mahmoud Ka'abneh tends to sheep at Ein el Hilwe in the Jordan Valley

7 days ago

A family member of Palestinian shepherd Mahmoud Ka'abneh tends to sheep at Ein el Hilwe in the Jordan Valley, a hotly contested part of the occupied West Bank February 15, 2014. Palestinian officials say more than 180 people [Palestinian men, women & children] have been uprooted since the beginning of the year by what they say is an upsurge in Israeli demolitions in the Jordan Valley. Israel describes these Palestinian shepherds as nomads and squatters. It says their ramshackle dwellings, built without permits and often located near Israeli military bases, are torn down in accordance with court orders. Picture taken February 15, 2014. To match Feature PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL/DEMOLITIONS REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS ANIMALS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY CIVIL UNREST)

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-approves-184-settlement-homes-145808451.html
REUTERS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Jerusalem municipality approved building plans on Wednesday for 184 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing anger from Palestinians engaged in faltering statehood talks.

A municipality spokeswoman said the local planning committee had approved requests by private contractors who purchased the land years ago for the construction of 144 homes in Har Homa and 40 dwellings in Pisgat Zeev.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), accused Israel of trying to derail U.S.-sponsored peace talks in which the future of settlements on land that Palestinians want for a state is a major issue.

"It is has become evident that Israel has done everything possible to destroy the ongoing negotiations and to provoke violence and extremism throughout the region," Ashrawi said in a statement...READ MORE

My letter to the NYTimes RE A Divide Among Palestinians on a Two-State Solution, A Language of Conflict, and Peace, & A Mideast Deal Breaker

In the West Bank village of Al Eizariya last month PHOTO Credit Ammar Awad/Reuters

RE: A Divide Among Palestinians on a Two-State Solution, A Language of Conflict, and Peace, & A Mideast Deal Breaker
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/middleeast/a-divide-among-palestinians-on-a-two-state-solution.html?ref=middleeast
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/middleeast/a-language-of-conflict-and-peace.html?ref=middleeast
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/opinion/a-mideast-deal-breaker.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Dear Editor,

If demographics actually translated into power or security, our entire world would be very different. For starters CEO pay would be relatively modest and workers' salaries would be much more generous.

Demographic studies might seem to be totally factual and helpful and perhaps even enlightening, but sometimes they can hide more than they reveal, and they can inspire dangerous policies: Right now Zionist ideologues obsessed with demographics have convinced Israelis to individually and collectively persecute, impoverish, displace, and demonize the native non-Jewish population of historic Palestine. A more honest accounting of Israel's population would already include every Palestinian refugee.

Furthermore, telling Islamists that demographics equal security and power mainly convinces Islamists that women should be expected to produce as many children as possible.... The clash of narratives and complex "conflict code" created by the Israel-Palestine conflict have many negative ramifications beyond the conflict itself.

Is Israel an ego trip or is it a religious war or is it sovereign nation with sovereign responsibilities: The rule of fair and just laws and full respect for universal human rights, including but not limited to the Palestine refugees right to return, must be the priority, for every one's sake.

End the Israel-Palestine conflict and all its many negative ramifications with a fully secular two state solution now or a fully secular one state solution next year. Either way America's fourth estate, and our colleges and universities and schools, our politicians, our elected leaders and our religious leaders and our business leaders and our diplomats need to stop empowering religious extremism, sectarian strife, delusional thinking and escalating conflict in the Middle East: Taxpayers here and there should not be forced to subsidize and arm Israel's religious "scholars" and schemes.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"I believe that the root of all injustice and oppression has always been the same – the dehumanization of the other. It is the obsession with Us and Them that can lead us, regardless of racial or religious identity, into the abyss." Roger Waters: Why I must speak out on Israel, Palestine and BDS

Maen Rashid Areikat: Obama is right to criticize Israeli settlements

Celebrities press UN on Palestinian refugees in Syria

Old Man of Jerusalem... with an AP archive link to a wonderful old (& very brief) video made in 1957 of an amazing Palestinian, Mohammad Khalil Abulhawa, born in 1821

Outreach: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all."

#LetUsThrough ... & KUDOS to The Guardian for a dignified glance at what is it really like to be on the frontline of humanitarian response

It’s important for people to know how far the Palestinians have come to put an end to the conflict with Israel.

The Palestinian Refugee's Right of Return: No issue is more emblematic of the 20th century Palestinian experience than the plight of the approximately seven million Palestinian refugees.

What message do we send?

Reflections By An ARAB JEW by Ella Habiba Shohat "When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the '50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently--the European Jews--were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness. My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew," and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences."

UNITED NATIONS: Give Peace a Chance... The year 2014 has been proclaimed the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People... “The objective of the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people as a central theme, contributing to international awareness of (a) core themes regarding the question of Palestine, as prioritized by the Committee, (b) obstacles to the ongoing peace process, particularly those requiring urgent action such as settlements, Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and; (c) mobilization of global action towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

The Arab Peace Initiative

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

Do Palestinians have a right to return to the places from which they or their ancestors were displaced?

“Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation…”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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Saturday, March 22, 2014

World Water Day 2014: The Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF) is proud to sign on to the Marseille Declaration which calls on global citizens of conscience to take action for Palestinian water rights and to promote global water justice.

My letter to the Washington Post RE Zionist letters "Israel’s position in the Middle East"

U.N. rights investigator accuses Israel of 'ethnic cleansing'... Last June Richard Falk pointed out that critics who called him anti-Semitic sought to divert attention from his scrutiny of Israeli policies.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Palestine Images.... flowering almond

Ashrawi: “There is a Global Rule of Law, and Israel Must be Subject to it”

Thursday, March 20, 2014

WCC general secretary expresses concern over Israeli Knesset law

Concern over Israeli law on the status of Arab Christian citizens

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian teen south of Hebron: Soldiers shoot dead teen after claiming he was damaging separation wall, victim's brother says he was picking local plants in the area with friends.

Israel approves 184 new settlement homes

My letter to the NYTimes RE A Divide Among Palestinians on a Two-State Solution, A Language of Conflict, and Peace, & A Mideast Deal Breaker

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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Friday, March 21, 2014

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

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